Tag: Hong Kong

Situated on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island in Sheung Wan, Shun Tak Centre is a transportation hub with ferry services to Macau and China. While some people go to Shun Tak Centre to shop, many go to Shun Tak in order to leave Hong Kong for Macau or China. Therefore, the mall is more like a departure point with some eateries and retail outlets thrown in.

Built up on a semi-open car park, the mall is not entirely shielded from the vehicle sound. Perhaps what makes the mall’s soundscape distinctive is the conjunction of car horn sounds and ferry engine sounds. Arriving at the ferry terminal concourse, you may find yourself walk right into an assault on senses on a busy day. The sonic environment is incredibly rich: loud talking of travellers waiting for ferries, many of the families which may be carrying crying babies on shoulders; children clamouring; travellers calling relatives to join them; luggage wheels sound especially when travellers hurry to board the ferry; dodgy people shouting and trying to sell tickets to Macau. The diversity of sonic components makes an incredibly rich soundscape.

Shun Tak Centre handles the in and out of countless travellers every day. Understandably, its environment is inevitably noisy. But since we have to spend time waiting for ferry and staying becomes temporarily necessary, are there ways we can make it pleasanter?

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated and densely built cities in the world. Its high density of skyscrapers has even earned Hong Kong the name of a concrete jungle. It is also a city that never sleeps because of its vibrant nightlife. Hong Kong may sometimes give you headaches because of its constant car horns and human voices. It is time we get away to the tranquil nature – Mai Po Marshes.

Mai Po Marshes (米埔濕地) is a nature reserve located near Yuen Long in Hong Kong. A haven for migratory waterbirds, the 380-heactare marshes and mudflats are where around 90,000 birds take refuge every winter. Furthermore, the reserve is home to a host of wildlife including birds of over 400 species, butterflies of over 100 species, crabs, shrimps, mammals, reptiles, and plants of over 250 species. 49 species of birds that inhabit the reserve are of global conservation concern including the black-faced spoonbill (黑面琵鷺). Spring and autumn are the best time for bird-watching. Visitors will hear calls and shrieks of birds in every direction as they forage for food and feed themselves on fish, shrimps and crabs. Mai Po Marshes showcases Hong Kong’s biodiversity and its auditory aspect, i.e. natural bird sounds, can be regarded as a soundmark of Hong Kong.

We may contrast the natural bird sounds with those in the bird market at Yuen Po Street (園圃街) in Mong Kok where nearly 100 stalls are set up to sell caged birds, often of bird types such as parrot, lovebird and Chinese hwamei (畫眉). How would they sound different from their free, uncaged counterparts in Mai Po Marshes? Maybe it has struck some people that while the bird sounds heard in the bird market may be more singsong, mellow and tamed, bird sounds in Mai Po Marshes are an integral, seamless part of the wild nature. Does it seem a fair assessment to you or do you think the assessment is heavily influenced by the landscape accompanying the bird sounds?

To upgrade and modernise the dilapidated Mong Kok, the commercial skyscraper complex and shopping mall – Langham Place was built and opened in 2005. Meant to be a nucleus for renewal for the surrounding area, it is only apt that it is bursting with vitality and is often extremely busy. Restaurants in Langham Place are often thronged with people, making it tough to get some seat if you are hanging out with friends. Chee Kei (池記) is no different.

Famous for its wonton noodle, Chee Kei aims to keep Hong Kong tradition alive by providing an elevated authentic experience of Cantonese food. Its lasting popularity with the locals is matched with recognition from HK Michelin Guide. The bustle of the mall fuses with the reputation of the restaurant and it is no wonder that Chee Kei in Langham Place is always packed with diners seeking comfort in the familiar balance between a meaty, flavourful wonton filling delicately wrapped and served in a bowl of aromatic, warm broth.

Although food is quick to come and its quality satisfactory, the restaurant is noisy and its backless chairs uncomfortable. While Michelin bestowed recognition on its wonton noodle, Michelin food critics did not seem to have taken the acoustic environment and comfort into consideration. The din makes people eat faster, leave sooner and get the queue moving. It begs the question: would noise be one of the desirable factors that the restaurant want to retain? But when a fully occupied restaurant is steeped in noise of loud chatting and the sounds of china plates, spoons and chopsticks clicking each other, does comfort food offer you much comfort any more?

Situated at Kowloon Tong, Festival Walk is highly accessible. Apart from being directly linked to Kowloon Tong Station, the mall has a direct rail connection to Mainland China and a pedestrian link to the City University of Hong Kong. For other means of transportation, it offers 830 car park spaces plus direct access to buses and taxis. Hence, Festival Walk plays the dual role of shopping paradise and transit hotspot. In view of the traffic and vehicle noise that may engender, two layers of glass door are in place to mitigate sound. Such enclosure methods are common and often seen, is there any novel means to achieve the same goal or to transform the unwanted sounds into sounds that are more appealing?

The popularity of Festival Walk owes much to its accessibility which facilitates or even maximizes customer flow. To tempt people to stay and linger, a variety of exhibitions take place regularly, topics ranging from car show, preview of the latest phone model, jewellery, cosmetics to even virtual reality by setting up a pop-up VR game station. No doubt such activities draw attention and enliven the sonic environment of the mall. Combining ease of access and regular exhibitions, the mall should be a constant stream of activities and movements. While accessibility brings customers and cash flow, the mall may be more prone to unwanted sound and indoor noise. Festival Walk is a high-end mall which houses many expensive brands. How will its role as a transit hotspot alter its soundscape which should represent its relatively lofty status?

Being highly accessible, Festival Walk entertains great customer flow and a constant stream of activities and movements of shoppers. Vying with more than 20 eating places under the same roof, the Shanghainese restaurant Wang Jia Sha (王家沙) manages to have its fair share of customers.

Claiming to be “the master of Shanghainese dim sum” and serve “authentic Shanghainese dim sum”, the brand provides an array of Shanghainese cuisine with an extensive list of dim sum. Despite having made a lot of effort in appearance and décor and despite its fine quality of food, it is being in a food court-style section of the mall and it is unpleasantly loud. Children’s clamours are more than audible, coupled with the sounds of china plates, spoons and other utensils clicking each other. You can hear everyone else chattering and clattering. A private conversation may not be a good idea because while you can hear everything being said to you, you may not really hear and catch the words and form a meaningful sentence. Even when customers order, waiters and waitresses have to lean towards them to hear what is being said. Gestures are thus created for diners to express what they want, such as asking for more tea or to pay the bill, so as to rely on hearing less and on the visual more.

Given that it is loud like a wet market, it is difficult to imagine diners would want to take it slow and enjoy the delicacies with languish and relish. Do you think a restaurant’s food experience should marry its auditory experience?

Guangdong dim sum restaurant, Hsin Kwong Restaurant (新光酒樓), is one of the many Chinese restaurant brands in Hong Kong. Having been in business for more than three decades, it has evolved over time by diversifying its specialties from traditional Guangdong cuisine, Peking duck, hotpot, to seafood, while providing mahjong playing as well as birthday and wedding banquet services.

Hsin Kwong Restaurant in Kwai Chung offers traditional Guangdong cuisine including dim sum. Diners’ chatting, the sounds of china plates, spoons and chopsticks clicking each other reverberate in the busy restaurant which is everything you can expect from a standard Chinese restaurant. What is now missing from the soundscape is the sound of dim sum trolleys. Dim sum trolleys are carts filled with dishes of dim sum. “Dim Sum Jeje” (Dim Sum Auntie or in Chinese: 點心姐姐) wheels the trolley around and announces what dishes the trolley is carrying for diners to make the order when the cart whizzes by. Dim sum trolleys are rarely seen today because it costs more to have workers operating them and restaurateurs need to accommodate more space for trolleys to manoeuvre. Many Chinese establishments serving dim sum, including Hsin Kwong Restaurants, have replaced their trolleys with simpler ordering systems and dim sum trolleys are no longer in use. The sound of dim sum trolleys rolling past, Dim Sum Auntie sonorously announcing trolley dishes and diners crying out orders in response no longer enrich the lively soundscape of Hsin Kwong Restaurant.

For everyone who wonders at where the name came from, Lee Theatre in Causeway Bay was once one of the premier performing venues in Hong Kong. Demolished in the 1990s, the Beaux-Art theatre was replaced with an office building and a shopping centre, becoming what we see today.

Apart from its history, what is special about Lee Theatre is perhaps its design of one floor one store. Each floor is occupied entirely by one shop, making spacious consumption experiences possible and allowing each brand to develop its individuality. Not only can they put a multitude of products on display and demonstrate amply what it can offer to customers, they can ensure customers are immersed in an environment completely tailored to their effort to urge purchase. Without the immediate presence of any other shops or rival brands, the store can create unity in the environment and a congruent, brand-specific setting for customers to linger. The sonic environment would likewise be in agreement across different areas on the same floor. Without coming into contact with a different background music, the store’s own music dominates and becomes more effective by having no offset from other prominent sources.

Do you like a big, sumptuous scoop of ice cream? Does the sight of ice-cream excite you? If you love ice cream, Mobile Softee (雪糕車) knows how to thrill you not only visually, but auditorily as well through pairing ice cream with cute music-box style melody. The 47-year-old brand has become part of the collective memory of many Hong Kongers. In fact, its symbolic and cultural significance is so great it can be said to have been a soundmark of Hong Kong.

Mobile Softee is an ice cream vendor in Hong Kong. It all started when Ho Ging-yuen (何敬源) and two of his friends imported the idea of an ice-cream truck from England by gaining a franchise in 1970 from Mister Softee, a United States-based ice cream truck franchisor. Ho selected the Blue Danube composed by Johann Strauss II as the theme song for their 14 ice-cream trucks out of all song choices provided by Mister Softee for no other reason than that the sweet tune rang most familiar to Ho.

Mobile Softee’s distinct ice cream trucks painted in red, white, and blue ran all over Hong Kong while playing the Blue Danube tune loud on their speakers. They lingered near schools and train stations on weekdays and at tourist spots such as the Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui on weekends. People always hear a Mobile Softee before seeing it. Once your ears catch the classic and well-known tune of the waltz music, it grows on you and stimulates your brain with enticing images of ice-cream, making you want to buy it even before seeing it. The Blue Danube tune is like a tantalizing beckoning, guiding and drawing people to its source and the product, a siren song for every ice-cream lover.

Not only is Mobile Softee one of the earliest precursors of food trucks in Hong Kong, it is also one of the few sellers that tap into people’s hunger through hearing. Its attempt to evoke the deliciousness of ice cream through music is a clever marketing strategy. It succeeded to be ear-catching in a memorable way and has made a name for itself. However, is Mobile Softee’s sweet music welcomed by everyone? When vehicle sound is coupled with music, do they go well together or on the contrary, make the surrounding soundscape noisier or chaotic? For people who would just like to enjoy the ice-cream in quiet, Mobile Softee’s music may ring less than peaceful to their ears. Whether the Blue Danube evokes whatever Mobile Softee aims to evoke, be it happiness or a craving for ice-cream, depends after all on the hearer, his or her mood or other personal factors, pointing to the subjectiveness of soundscape.

Popularity of Hong Kong-style diners, or cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) endures for decades in Hong Kong because they meet the locals’ relentless demand for fast service and an eclectic and affordable menu. Are cha chaan teng places you go to when you want to grab a quick lunch? If yes, you may probably have heard of Lan Fong Yuen (蘭芳園). Opened since 1952, Lan Fong Yuen is one of oldest and most famous cha chaan teng in Hong Kong. It is said to be the inventor of the classic local beverage “silk stockings milk tea” (絲襪奶茶) and renowned for their delicious pork chop bun. As its business flourished, it expanded by having outlets, one of which is at Shun Tak Centre in Sheung Wan.

Shun Tak Centre plays two roles: it is a mall and a transportation hub with ferry services to and from Macau and China. Therefore, eateries at Shun Tak take in a lot traveller daily who either want a bite before departure or are hungry after arrival. It must be particularly so for Lan Fong Yuen which has become a symbol of Hong Kong culture and regarded as a must-eat for tourists. Given the fact that commuters make the majority of diners at Shun Tak and commuters desire speed, eateries at Shun Tak would inevitably be fast-paced. How would an environment being fast-paced affect its soundscape? In Lan Fong Yuen, it was noisy and the sonic environment is dominated by the voices of waiters taking order and customers chatting about gambling in casino or businessmen busy talking with his clients. The waiters’ tone might sound authoritative and rude to some customers, which may impart tension to the restaurant soundscape. Given the amount of sounds going on incessantly, you may not want to stay for a little longer after finishing your meal.

Cha chaan teng thrives on its high efficiency and it is the place to go for people who have a hectic day or lifestyle who want food fast and almost instant. Diners do not usually expect a pleasant environment where nice chats and some relaxing can take place. If the place is too noisy for you to want to stay longer, it is probably what they want because customers keep coming in and diners had better not loiter.

Think of food heavily flavoured or fragrant with spice. What sound would you associate with spicy food? Specifically, what sound would you associate with the popular rice noodle chain TamJai SamGor (譚仔三哥).

TamJai’s dominantly red décor give us a hint about what it specializes at: spicy mixian. Mixian (米線) is a type of rice noodle from the Yunnan Province of China. Most noted for its “Hot & Numbing Soup Mixian”, the mixian specialist offers up to nine different degrees of spiciness to choose from for those who want to challenge their taste buds. A successful brand, TamJai SamGor in Citywalk 2 is moderately busy. Although the voices of waitresses taking orders are clearly audible, the eatery is not too noisy. Background music is not heard, probably eclipsed by human voices. However, the lack of it presents an opportunity for the brand to step up its spice game.

Scientists at the University of Oxford have discovered that certain types of music – those with fast beats, distorted notes and high-pitched sounds – can enhance the sensation of heat from chili peppers. Apart from setting the mood for diners, music can serve as what the researchers call “sonic seasoning”. Do you think it is a good idea for TamJai SamGor to play those types of music in its restaurants?